SubmitHub – Page 176 – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Grace and Quiet Wisdom of Wales Finds Expression in Shawn Kerr’s Ambient Piano Piece “Fluke”

Shawn Kerr was inspired for “Fluke” by the calm motion of a humpback whale as it swam by him when he was working along the Antarctic Peninsula. The drifting piano line resolves organically, swells, flows into minimal introspection and follows a naturally elegant and seemingly informal line of melody. In the background and drone of bright melodies resonates in the distance capturing the ineffable beauty of the moment. Kerr says the song is about opportunities in the larger sense as in one can be open to powerful moments and be struck by something outside your self-conditioned sense of the world and thus moved into a different state of awareness and thus consciousness without that experience having been planned or commodified and sold to you in some fashion. Whales remain mysterious to us because we know they’re intelligent and humpbacks certainly have a greater emotional capacity than humans. Kerr seems to suggest that being open to learning from a whale without needing to impose our limited understanding upon them might expand, to the extent possible, our understanding of ourselves in the broader context of the world. Certainly his composition takes us out of a life of linear logic for a few moments and leave us to wonder and experience a quiet awe at creatures motivated by impulses we may never fully understand and should, thus, respect. Listen to “Fluke” on Spotify and connect with Shawn Kerr at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0SxCkzmGHNlJI0FDnlYfrz
https://soundcloud.com/shawnkerrmusic
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5i1tJJZT4oAgOlcgbjtLLQ?
https://shawnkerr.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/shawnkerrmusic

Provoker’s “Since Then” is a Celebration of the Idiosyncratic Glory of Authentic Living

Provoker’s video for “Since Then” (directed by Carl Raymond Hansen) looks like a collage of live performance footage and selections from a box of home movies found at a thrift store. Musically it sits between a grimy surf rock reminiscent of pro-Bossanova Pixies and Mac DeMarco and thus a perfect aesthetic pairing. Like plumbing what some might consider cultural detritus and offhand documentation of odd moments of life and making it into something resonant through raw, creative recontextualization. If there was a West Coast version of Siltbreeze it would embrace this band’s sound that is as much lo-fi pop as it is a commentary on the nature of memory and holding on to those bits of your past and the past generally that enrich your life even if, especially when, a lot of other people don’t get it. It’s what makes us a unique amalgam of roots and experiences and cultivation of feelings, ideas and notions rather than the pre-planned product a corporate oligarchy would like us to embody. Human life, real life, exists outside standard lines of marketability when lived authentically and this song and video is a celebration of that. Watch the video for “Since Then” on YouTube and connect with Provoker at the links provided.

https://www.provoker.zone
https://soundcloud.com/provokerzone
https://provoker.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/provoker.zone
https://www.instagram.com/provoker.zone

Mt. Wolf Untangles the Knots in Your Consciousness With the Dream Folk Single “Tayrona”

There is the quality of hearing something on a sleepy morning on AM radio to Mt. Wolf’s single “Tayrona.” The UK-based band has been away for a few years and this song, featuring Tamsin Wilson of Wilsen (the first single from a forthcoming collaborative project to be released through Akira Records), sounds like something on the beginning, the opening, of something new. A new day, a new chapter in life, a new era for the band. No strangers to delicate textures that suggest space and atmosphere, Mt. Wolf brings a good deal of that to “Tayrona.” But the vibe is more like imagining the soundtrack of looking at old Polaroids of a life you had a decade ago but have enough life experience to appreciate what you did not fully at the time but can glean from the imagery that stirs memories and emotional associations. But rather than make you sad it allows you to reconnect with a time when things seemed more new and magical and bringing that energy into the present to suffuse your present endeavors with a sense of freshness and gentle flows of inspiration. Though soothing in its effervescent soundscapes the song also goes through your mind like it untangled the knots in your consciousness. Listen to “Tayrona” on Soundcloud and connect with Mt. Wolf at the links below.

https://www.facebook.com/MtWolfOfficial
https://twitter.com/MtWolfOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/mtwolfofficial

Leire’s “What We’ve Got” is an Elegant Reminder That Our Normally Busy Lives Rarely Give Us the Time for Much-Needed Self-Reflection

There are going to be a lot of songs coming out of the pandemic that started in 2019 and bloomed in full in 2020 that fall back on songwriting tropes filled with hollow platitudes. But Leire gives us “What We’ve Got.” Every line of the song offers a creative take on learning to appreciate what she and her loved one have even when they can’t be together and planning for the future when the “nightmare’s over.” There is a disarming sincerity in the song that lacks melodramatic preciousness and Leire’s vocals strike the perfect balance of tender, affectionate, hopeful yet resigned to things being on hold for the moment as frustrating as that can be. The tenor of Leire’s delivery is one that suggests that the patience and appreciating what’s good about your relationship despite the challenges will be worth it in the long run. She acknowledges moments of weakness and her own limitations as a person throughout the song and the things she’s taken for granted and letting that knowledge make her a better person by putting her energy there rather than letting it fester into something negative. The spare melody and guitar accents simple help to convey an elegance and emotional refinement that makes the song especially effective as it is a reminder to oneself that regular life rarely affords us time to reflect and grow as people. Listen to “What We’ve Got” on Soundcloud and connect with Leire at the links provided.

leiremusic.com
https://www.youtube.com/leiremusic
https://www.facebook.com/leire.music
https://www.instagram.com/leire.music

The Resonant Elegance of Spirit Informing Alara’s “Demons” Enhances its Message of Mutual Recognition of the Trauma That Exists in All of Us

Alara’s “Demons” is a deep take on how pretty much everyone you will ever meet has some trauma in their past that hangs on their present and affects how they move through the world and relate to others. But Alara suggests we can reduce the power of this ambient trauma by acknowledging its existence and rather than be guided by any of its negative influences, choose to use it as a way to connect with people and foster understanding without the need to compare who has suffered worse or more. The production on the song with its subtle dynamics almost makes you forget there’s music other than Alara’s resonant yet soothing vocals but it’s this graciousness of composition and its expert use of space and atmosphere that draws you further into the song so that what could be a fairly heavy subject seem accessible in a way that directly confronting it wouldn’t. The elegance of the songwriting and the spirit with which it is executed enhances the impact of the song and its creative approach to fostering dialogue in an organic and compassionate way is striking. Listen to “Demons” on Soundcloud and connect with Alara at the links provided.

https://twitter.com/hernameisalara
https://www.facebook.com/hernameisalara
https://www.instagram.com/hernameisalara

Zac Jr Dispenses With Foolish Illusions and Conventional Wisdom on the Anti-Advice Song “Don’t Listen To Me”

Zac Jr takes on a sardonic, self-deprecating tone on “Don’t Listen To Me.” The keyboard melody though subdued gives an undeniable air of whimsical daydreaminess that flows well throughout the song riding the crest of finely accented percussion All the while the vocals are like a monologue that suggest taking some advice while offering the opposite of advice with every line. One gets the impression that Zac is singing to his younger self or singing to his current self from the future words that could really benefit anyone who is clinging to foolish illusions and conventional wisdoms that you sometimes take the better part of a lifetime are arbitrary and not useful in real life. And the pushing forward with aspirations conditioned by social expectations rather than your actual drems. There’s the line about “Alone you’ll turn weak” taking aim at the way so many of us seem to think that individual achievement and effort is the only kind that’s legitimate and which defines our dignity as humans in western psyche. But the best line comes near the end of the song with “Faith won’t lead the fervent to mountains of god, but/Lean on your dreams when the ground starts to fall” because every foundation upon which you place your whole world will fail you at some point and living with the flexibility of being comfortable with doubt while not psychologically satisfying in a conventional and traditional value system and Western metaphysics might actually better prepare you for rolling with what may come your way. Fans of Get Lost period Magnetic Fields will appreciate Zac Jr’s command of unconventional pop songcraft in assembling the simple elements of this composition to express complex ideas in a way accessible and thought-provoking. Listen to “Don’t Listen To Me” on Soundcloud and connect with Zack Jr at the links below.

https://soundcloud.com/zacjr
https://zacjr.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/ZacJr
https://www.facebook.com/ZacJrJr

The Dynamic Fluidity of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “The Steady Heart” Engenders a Flexibility of Mind

Kaitlin Aurelia Smith, The Mosaic of Transformation cover

The melody and soundcapes of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s “The Steady Heart” seem to follow a pattern that evolves and expands organically in a kind of recursive drift of reflective emotional tides. The music video employs images of Smith in poses replicated in quadrants, the visuals created by Sean Hellfritsch and resonant with the work of the artist Thomas Scharfenberg. The glimmering tones and mantra-like vocals interweave with a simple, textural rhythm for an effect like a multidimensional drone made to put your mind in a state where you can cast off the usual distractions and, for a few moments anyway, swim out of the anxieties that seem to be compounding with the rapid succession of crises that have dropped on to us the last few years. The dynamics of the song has a fluidity that engenders a flexibility of mind that helps to get you unstuck from static habits. Watch the video for “The Steady Heart” on YouTube and connect with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith at the links below where you can find more information on her recently released album The Mosaic of Transformation out on Ghostly International.

https://twitter.com/kaitlynaurelia
https://www.facebook.com/kaitlynaurelia
https://www.instagram.com/kaitlynaurelia

Vinyl Williams Takes Us on a Trip We Didn’t Know We Needed to Make to Our Own Personal Utopia on “LA Egypt”

Vinyl Williams, photo courtesy the artist

On “LA Egypt” Vinyl Williams invokes the blend of classic pop, lounge and psychedelia as embodied by The Free Design (which the somewhat like-minded Stereolab invoked on its own song of the same name from 1999’s Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night) and Brazilian Bossa Nova, jazz funk legend Arthur Verocai. The colorful and hypnotic video parallels the hazy, layered aesthetic that hits you gently but is simultaneously rich in content. It offers a view into an imaginative alternative reality in which shifting between inner and outer space is effortless and offers a path to creating a kind of non-invasive Utopia that anyone can access at will. What makes the track remarkable is that while it is very rooted in a way to previous forms of music and established styles it is not trapped by their conventions. It is equally informed by the well-crafted chill of the previously mentioned artists as it is by the recent wave of psychedelia and dream pop. But you don’t hear it and immediately think it’s basically a decent imitation of Tame Impala or Sound of Ceres. The guitars swirl perfectly into the stream of keyboards, synth and ethereal vocals. There is a at times a disciplined, Krautrock-esque rhythm but one that gives way to an abstract flow into infinite horizons. It is also a fine introduction to Vinyl Williams’ latest album Azure LP which released June 5, 2020 on Requiem Pour Un Twister as Williams once again takes us on an aural journey we didn’t know we needed but glad we undertook. For the album art Williams combined over twenty-five paintings as a cognate of the attention to detail and focused creativity that went into composing the music within. Watch the video for “LA Egypt” on YouTube and connect with Vinyl Williams at the links provided include that for the interactive version of the video.

Interactive version of LA Egypt here: https://laegypt.vinylwilliams.com

https://vinylwilliams.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/vinylwilliams

https://www.instagram.com/vinylwilliams

MOLI Goes Deep On the Toxic and Warping Effects of Social Media on Our Psyches and Relationships With Each Other on “So Jealous”

MOLI goes deep on the way social media has warped our culture through impacting the way many of us present ourselves online and the way we perceive others. The previously unimaginable and, it turns out, unhealthy level of access we have to each other these days minus the contexts that ground our experiences. MOLI casts that dynamic in a song about someone who sees the popularity of someone she doesn’t know who now has the attention of an ex and the psychological twists and turns that engender feelings of, as one might guess from the song title, jealousy, inadequacy, isolation, self-doubt and the projection of one’s insecurities on situations that have little to do with you. The effervescent melody and sweeping dynamics almost give the song a hopeful quality though it also mirrors the heightened sense of personal drama as well. Though the song gives an example of the toxic nature of the mediated experience of human interaction in social media it is a snapshot of the phenomenon overall and how that much access, albeit incomplete while giving a sense of totality, to others can turn everyone into a bit of a performative content creator for a data corporation and marketing tools—a sentient input to a feedback loop that rewards participation in a network with a shot of dopamine whether the quanta of experiences are positive or negative for you. MOLI, though, suggests that pulling back from being reduced in aggregate to a binary derivative of some kind might be necessary for our collective mental health. Watch the video for “So Jealous” on YouTube and connect with Moli at the links provided. https://www.youtube.com/embed/hc5PF8fWWwc

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UytzAp8ZnC60ZAMBROqW6
https://soundcloud.com/whoismoli
https://www.instagram.com/whoismoli

AFAR Lures You Into a Brooding, Downtempo Journey Into Slow Burn Emotional Catharsis on “Lulled and Fake”

There is a sultry darkness to AFAR’s single “Lulled and Fake.” The distorted, electronic bass pulses along with a brooding menace while electric bass traces the outlines of a melody that runs through the song as a compliment to the dynamic and rich vocals like one of the more dub-inspired tracks by 90s downtempo groups that crafted songs using something of a production songwriting palette and a seamless mix of electronic and electric instruments like Massive Attack and Portishead. Except that on “Lulled and Fake,” AFAR is especially reminiscent of Curve in the vocals and the way Curve could sustain a slow burn intensity without having to resort to a blowout denouement to leave a lasting impression Listen to “Lulled and Fake” on Soundcloud where you can also follow the band’s further exploits.